The Art of Queenship in the Hellenistic World

Patricia Eunji Kim (New York University)

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Cambridge University Press
31 July 2025

History of art: ancient & classical art; Other graphic art forms; Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Gender studies: women

In The Art of Queenship in the Hellenistic World, Patricia Eunji Kim examines the visual and material cultures of Hellenistic queens, the royal and dynastic women who served as subjects and patrons of art. Exploring evidence in the interconnected eastern Mediterranean and western Asia from the fourth to second centuries BCE, Kim argues that the arts of queenship were central to expressions of dynastic (and sometimes even imperial) consolidation, continuity, and legitimacy. From gems, coins, and vessels to monuments and sculpture, the visual and material cultures of queenship appeared in a range of sacred settings, public spaces, royal courts, and domestic domains. Encompassing several dynasties, including the Hecatomnids, Argeads, Ptolemies, Seleucids, and Attalids, Kim inaugurates new methods for comparing and interpreting visual articulations of queenship and ideal femininity from distinct yet culturally entangled contexts, thus illuminating the ways that women had an impact art and politics in the ancient world.

By: Patricia Eunji Kim (New York University)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009502122
ISBN 10: 1009502123
Pages: 350
Publication Date: 31 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Abbreviations and sources; Dedication; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Engendering dynasty: monumental women and public sculpture; 2. Foreign royal wives from Asia and objects of Hellenistic queenship; 3. (Be)Holding the beautiful bodies of Ptolemaic queens; 4. Imperial kinship and care in portrayals of Seleucid queenship; 5. Royal mothers and Attalid dynastic monuments; Conclusion: looking for queens; Bibliography.

Patricia Eunji Kim is Assistant Professor at New York University, senior editor and curator-at-large at Monument Lab, and co-editor of several volumes on both ancient and contemporary art. Her research has been recognized with awards and fellowships from the Center for Hellenic Studies, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.